Nov 19, 2013 3 min read

HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania’s top House Democrats said Tuesday they were trying to persuade the chamber’s Republican majority to allow a vote on their transportation plan after the defeat of a Republican proposal heightened doubts that any transportation measure can pass before 2015.

The comments by Minority Leader Frank Dermody and Whip Michael Hanna came only hours after a Republican plan backed by Speaker Sam Smith and Gov. Tom Corbett narrowly failed in a Monday night vote.

Smith would not allow a vote on the Democrats’ plan Monday, and his spokesman said he could not comment on what plans existed to consider a transportation measure Tuesday.

Hanna said he asked a member of House Republican leadership Tuesday morning to persuade Smith and others to allow a vote on the Democratic amendment.

“The words (in response) were, ‘I will take it back to the rest of the leaders,”‘ Hanna said. “We’re not giving up.”

The divided Republican majority produced just 59 votes on Monday as conservatives raised concerns about a tax increase they call the second-largest in Pennsylvania’s history. The plan failed, 98-103, with 102 needed to pass a bill.

Proponents say the plan would protect public safety and give the state’s economy a big boost by updating taxes and fees to reflect inflation after going unchanged since at least the 1990s.

The transportation bill is the most closely watched in the Capitol and is being heavily lobbied by a wide range of business groups and labor unions that support raising motorists’ taxes and fees to pump billions of dollars into highways, bridges and mass transit systems.

The proposed increase is nearly 50 percent of the $5.3 billion that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is scheduled to spend this year on highways, bridges and transit.

Corbett has made the passage of a transportation funding bill his top legislative priority this fall, but House leaders have struggled for months to respond to the Senate’s June 5 passage of a $2.5 billion plan. Top lawmakers have said in recent days that they will put the matter aside if the House is unable to find a consensus this week.

With an election year looming in 2014, lawmakers are unlikely to vote for a tax increase that they say is unpopular with the public.

Dermody said the GOP-sponsored bill failed because of bipartisan opposition to a provision to roll back wage requirements on some transportation projects.

“Last night was not about transportation, it was about wages for workers,” Dermody told reporters Tuesday.

The Democratic and Republican proposals are otherwise identical.

They would increase gasoline taxes and motorists’ fees to eventually raise more than $2.3 billion a year, primarily for roads, bridges and mass transit systems. The tax increase could mean an increase of as much as 28.5 cents per gallon at the pump, based on the average wholesale price in use for 2013.

The Department of Transportation says repairs are needed on more than 23 percent of the state-maintained highways and nearly 20 percent of the state-owned bridges. Meanwhile, public transit agencies are battling deficits to maintain services.